Presented is a study of the charge-state evolution of relativistic lead ions passing through a thin aluminum stripper foil. It was motivated by the Gamma Factory project at CERN, where optical laser pulses will be converted into intense gamma-ray bea
ms with energies up to a few hundred MeV via excitation of atomic transitions in few-electron heavy-ions at highly relativistic velocities. In this study all charge-states starting from Pb$^{54+}$ up to bare ions are considered at kinetic projectile energies of 4.2 and 5.9 GeV/u. To this purpose the BREIT code is employed together with theoretical cross-sections for single-electron loss and capture of the projectile ions. To verify the predicted charge-state evolution, the results are compared to the very few experimental data being available for highly-relativistic lead beams. Reasonable agreement is found, in particular for the yields of Pb$^{80+}$ and Pb$^{81+}$ ions that were recently measured using an aluminum stripper foil located in the transfer beam line between the PS and SPS synchrotron accelerators at CERN. The present study lays the groundwork to optimize the yields of charge states of interest for experiments within the scientific program of the future Gamma Factory project.
We report on the measurements of the total charge changing fragmentation cross sections in high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions using Fe, Si and Pb incident ions. Several stacks of CR39 nuclear track detectors with different target combinations wer
e exposed at normal incidence to high energy accelerator beams to integrated densities of about 2000 ions/cm^2. The nuclear track detector foils were chemically etched, and ion tracks were measured using an automatic image analyzer system. The cross section determination is based on the charge identification of beam ions and their fragments and on the reconstruction of their path through the stacks.
Exposures of test samples of nuclear track emulsion were analyzed. Angular and energy correlations of products originating from the thermal-neutron-induced reaction n$_{th} + ^{10}$B $rightarrow ^{7}$Li $+ (gamma) + alpha$ were studied in nuclear tac
k emulsions enriched in boron. Nuclear track emulsions were also irradiated with $^{86}$Kr$^{+17}$ and $^{132}$Xe$^{+26}$ of energy about 1.2 MeV per nucleon. Measurements of ranges of heavy ions in nuclear track emulsions made it possible to determine their energies on the basis of the SRIM model. The formation of high-multiplicity nuclear stars was observed upon irradiating nuclear track emulsions with ultrarelativistic muons. Kinematical features studied in this exposure of nuclear track emulsions for events of the muon-induced splitting of carbon nuclei to three alpha particles are indicative of the nuclear-diffraction interaction mechanism.
Status and prospects of nuclear clustering studies by dissociation of relativistic nuclei in nuclear track emulsion are presented. The unstable $^{8}$Be and $^{9}$B nuclei are identified in dissociation of the isotopes $^{9}$Be, $^{10}$B, $^{10}$C an
d $^{11}$C, and the Hoyle state in the cases $^{12}$C and $^{16}$O. On this ground searching for the Hoyle state and more complex $alpha$-particle states in the dissociation of the heavier nuclei is suggested. A detailed study of a low-density baryonic matter arising in dissociation of the heaviest nuclei is forthcoming long-term problem. An analysis of nuclear fragmentation induced by relativistic muons is proposed to examine the mechanism dissociation.
The technique of nuclear track emulsions is used to explore the fragmentation of light relativistic nuclei down to the most peripheral interactions - nuclear white stars. A complete pattern of therelativistic dissociation of a $^8$B nucleus with targ
et fragment accompaniment is presented. Relativistic dissociation $^{9}$Be$to2alpha$ is explored using significant statistics and a relative contribution of $^{8}$Be decays from 0$^+$ and 2$^+$ states is established. Target fragment accompaniments are shown for relativistic fragmentation $^{14}$N$to$3He+H and $^{22}$Ne$to$5He. The leading role of the electromagnetic dissociation on heavy nuclei with respect to break-ups on target protons is demonstrated in all these cases. It is possible to conclude that the peripheral dissociation of relativistic nuclei in nuclear track emulsion is a unique tool to study many-body systems composed of lightest nuclei and nucleons in the energy scale relevant for nuclear astrophysics.